This is my original tribute brought up to date.
On a Sunday morning nine years ago I received a text saying we had lost someone close to the club. This time, though, it wasn`t an ex-player or an official it was a fan. However it wasn`t just any fan, it was a man who had a passion for Preston North End the likes of which was unsurpassed in my experience in my 57 years watching North End. Tommy Coyne had passed away after going to a friends stag party at Haydock Park and left behind those who knew him, shaken to the core. Tommy loved North End, perhaps love is not a strong enough word... he idolised them and when he sang "We're by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen" Tommy Coyne meant it. In the dark days of the 80`s he was there with the loyal few and, in later years, I remember speaking to him before the West Ham game in the concourse at Cardiff in 2005, both of us convinced we would be in the promised land by 5:00pm that afternoon.
Ive travelled away with Tom a few dozen times over the years with us both being Leyland lads and I have to say he was always the most fantastic company when that Lilywhite blood ran right through his veins.
Tom would defend the name of Preston North End wherever he went and there have been some memorable incidents over the years at places as far afield as Gillingham, Wrexham and Anfield. The story of the tea urn at Wrexham is one that always brings amusement more than 40 years on but these stories and many, many more like them are for another day. As you get older you sort of develop an inner ability to deal with most of what life throws at you but I have to say that the cold realisation that I wasn't going to bump into Tommy at the far flung outposts of the Championship in future was something, quite clearly, that I have still not yet come to terms with. TC had a multitude of friends and was respected wherever he went and I suppose my abiding memory, and regret, of this most loyal of North End fans is that he won't be there to see it if the day comes when our great football club finally claims its place back at the top table of English football.
My heart still goes out to Tommy's girls. We are all thinking of them but no words can ever make up for the loss of a Father and a Legend.
Tommy lad, you left us far too soon fella but with a host of memories that will last us forever. You may have not seen your beloved North End reach the Premiership but up there in Heaven they had better keep a place at the top table for a man who was Premiership class through and through. Tom you joined the Gentry nine years ago and took your rightful place with North End`s elite.
Sleep well TC, nine years on the world is still a poorer place without you.
On a Sunday morning nine years ago I received a text saying we had lost someone close to the club. This time, though, it wasn`t an ex-player or an official it was a fan. However it wasn`t just any fan, it was a man who had a passion for Preston North End the likes of which was unsurpassed in my experience in my 57 years watching North End. Tommy Coyne had passed away after going to a friends stag party at Haydock Park and left behind those who knew him, shaken to the core. Tommy loved North End, perhaps love is not a strong enough word... he idolised them and when he sang "We're by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen" Tommy Coyne meant it. In the dark days of the 80`s he was there with the loyal few and, in later years, I remember speaking to him before the West Ham game in the concourse at Cardiff in 2005, both of us convinced we would be in the promised land by 5:00pm that afternoon.
Ive travelled away with Tom a few dozen times over the years with us both being Leyland lads and I have to say he was always the most fantastic company when that Lilywhite blood ran right through his veins.
Tom would defend the name of Preston North End wherever he went and there have been some memorable incidents over the years at places as far afield as Gillingham, Wrexham and Anfield. The story of the tea urn at Wrexham is one that always brings amusement more than 40 years on but these stories and many, many more like them are for another day. As you get older you sort of develop an inner ability to deal with most of what life throws at you but I have to say that the cold realisation that I wasn't going to bump into Tommy at the far flung outposts of the Championship in future was something, quite clearly, that I have still not yet come to terms with. TC had a multitude of friends and was respected wherever he went and I suppose my abiding memory, and regret, of this most loyal of North End fans is that he won't be there to see it if the day comes when our great football club finally claims its place back at the top table of English football.
My heart still goes out to Tommy's girls. We are all thinking of them but no words can ever make up for the loss of a Father and a Legend.
Tommy lad, you left us far too soon fella but with a host of memories that will last us forever. You may have not seen your beloved North End reach the Premiership but up there in Heaven they had better keep a place at the top table for a man who was Premiership class through and through. Tom you joined the Gentry nine years ago and took your rightful place with North End`s elite.
Sleep well TC, nine years on the world is still a poorer place without you.